The First Minister:

I will try to inject some facts into this discussion. We are not cutting the number of beds. The Scottish Government has invested £38 million in expanding capacity in residential rehab as part of the national mission. Of such beds, 32 are operational and another 38 are in the pipeline for the next few months. We believe that we are absolutely on track, with our projected funding, to meet our commitment to increase the overall residential rehab capacity from 425 to 650 by 2026.

We are also very much on track to meet the targets that we have set for publicly funded rehab placements, so Douglas Ross’s suggestion that we are cutting the number of residential rehab beds is simply not true.

Regarding Glasgow City Council’s decision about the 218 service, I am happy to release the letters about that if they have not been released already. I will quote directly from the letter that one of our civil servants wrote to Glasgow City Council:

“We consider that any decision to retender the service is entirely a matter for Glasgow City Council but confirm we have no objection to the replacement service utilising the funding currently allocated to the 218 service.”

We did the right thing by ensuring that funding was flexible for the local authority. A range of initiatives are still available for women in Glasgow to access, including the Lilias community custody centre, which is based in Glasgow and where practice in supporting all women who are serving sentences has evolved greatly. There is also Glasgow’s Hemat Gryffe Women’s Aid and Glasgow East Women’s Aid, which can provide up to 64 safe places for women, and SAY Women, which supports women aged from 16 to 25 and has nine spaces in purpose-built flats. There is a range of initiatives.